


Saga of the Golden Dragon

by Serriya (Keolah)



Category: DroidArena, Imperial Conflict, Multi-User Dungeon
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Action/Adventure, Betrayal, Dragons, Drama, Gen, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Temporary Character Death, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 1998-01-01
Updated: 2002-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-14 01:34:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/509905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The dragon Scregor is reborn many times in many different worlds. And as much as he seeks to be honorable, he is met time and again with heartache and betrayal.</p><p>A fictionalized account of a lot of online game drama.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Mediocre writing ahead that was an attempt to describe in-game events in a fictional context, winding up with something that sounds pretty nonsensical out of context.

It was in the Age of the Wind that the first life of Scregor came to a close. For, though he had reigned over the lands of Garateck for centuries, a group of elves had sought to do him in. Having heard of the great prophecies of old, he learned that one day a mighty dragon would scour the lands of Taverak and free all dragonkind from persecution. However, he was wrong.

Would-be dragonslayers were common in western Zarhanna, but Scregor knew that this small group was not like the others. They were Wind-Riders, the sole nation of elves who retained the powers of old, and these particular ones of a descent even stronger than most Wind-Riders. But it was the human woman who surprised him, however. She bore an enchanted pike, and when he first looked upon that he felt something he had never felt before. Absolute terror.

He felt the aura of power radiating from the pike before she even brought it near him. It was a terrible aura that spelled death for any of his kind should it come within physical contact with him. He tried to avoid it, but the woman was fearless, and walked through fire, and plunged the deadly spear into his mouth.

When the terrible magic washed through his body, he knew that he was done for, and he cast about for the first thing he could find: his war-drum. The drum that was his namesake just might save his soul, if not his life. With his dying strength he locked himself into the drum, so that when it was struck his draconic soul could find a new, living body in the form of an unborn child. It was a last resort, but for it the spirit of Scregor would have never survived.

Then, Elen the Excellent walked up to the war-drum and struck it. Instantly freed, the spirit of the dragon coursed across the gap between worlds, into the tiny body of an unborn child, somewhere very far away...


	2. Age of the Ancients

A young dwarf was born, strong and hardy, and his parents named him Scregor, on the basis of a dream his mother had had once, of a mighty golden dragon. In the hopes that her newborn son would one day become a dragon, she followed the dream as it were a prophecy and named her son Scregor.

Scregor was born into a clan called the Underworld Knights, a small and relatively new faction based on helping those weaker than themselves. He learned the ways of the warrior, and soon discovered that he had a talent for healing magic, and took up the ways of the cleric as well. Learning two entirely different sets of skills at the same time, however, did not slow him down in the least.

When he was still a boy by dwarven standards, he turned away from the clan of his birth, having seen them getting nowhere and constantly oppressed. Later he regretted his decision to join the Clan of the White Fang, which was the largest and strongest clan in the world.

He learned quickly, faster than anyone had ever seen. Some rumors drifted about that he must have had the help of a god to learn so fast, but he had done it all on his own. He was welcomed into the elite of White Fang gladly, into the single greatest force in the world, known as the Army of the Hellspawn. It took him years later to find any forboding in the name.

The Leader of the Hellspawn was Chaos, a mighty red dragon feared to all ends of the earth. According to rumors, he was the mortal incarnation of a god.

Scregor, having attained an incredible status in a very short period of time, then decided that for him it was worth the risk to take the path of the dragon, for something inside of him told him that he was always meant to be a dragon. The dwarven paladin changed, and a mighty golden dragon came forth once again.

He was strong, and grew quickly into great prestige and ranking among his fellow dragons. He traveled far and wide, exploring his world and fighting those that opposed his clan. He won his battles more often than not, and only rarely needed to back out of a fight. Oftentimes he would have friendly duels with his fellow dragons, and frequently he would win.

One day, Scregor decided that he would take on everyone. He decided to duel with each dragon in the realm once, all of them, and if he lost a duel he would duel again and again until he won them all. Dragon after dragon learned the incredible might of Scregor, and only a few times did he ever lose, and he never gave up.

* * *

**The Tower of Force**

One day Modig invited Scregor on a trip to the Tower of Force, a fortress in the mountains far west from Mithras, where only dragons and avatars could go, and only the strongest would survive.

Midway through the trip, Modig said that he needed to go do something, and told Scregor to wait for him, he would be right back.

A few minutes later, Modig came back, and started casting spells on himself, spells of protection and strength mostly.

"What are you going to do?" asked Scregor a bit nervously. He assumed that Modig was going to attack the Water Elemental, but wanted to be sure first. "I don't like surprises," he added.

"HH," Modig said ambiguously.

Scregor grew cold to the bone. HH stood for the Head Hunters, the mercenary guild that Modig belonged to. Anything that had to do with them could not be good. Scregor cast Modig a questioning glare.

"I have a contract for ten million gold. I've got to kill you. Only once," he added reassuringly.

Scregor had fought Modig in the arena, and he was one of the two, perhaps three dragons he could not defeat. There was a strained pause, and Scregor commented, "I'm not exactly running away and hiding."

He would face death gladly, as he had faced it before. When Modig attacked him, he didn't even fight back, knowing that this was one battle that even if he won it would only get the entire group of Head Hunters against him.

The death of a dragon by another dragon could be heard by everyone across the world, no matter how far. When Scregor was resurrected, he asked Modig, "You happy now?"

"Yes," replied Modig.

* * *

**Death in the Halls of Minotaurs**

It was late one night in the caverns of the Hellspawn that he heard in his mind a call for help from one of his brothers. Somewhere far away, one of his clansmen was dying, having tried and failed to save the life of a young dragon who had wandered into the dangerous halls of the minotaurs.

Scregor knew the place, but had never been there since according to rumor the minotaurs had grown stronger than they ever were before. He hesitated only a moment before teleporting himself into the stronghold, and came quickly to the gate where Skie lay dying. The minotaur guards attacked him on sight.

He fought them as he tried to make way for Skie and the young dragon to escape, but one of the guards bashed into him, knocking him unconscious. When he came to again, it was all he could do to heal himself before he was slammed into again, the breath knocked out of him.

Scregor was confident in his own ability, and continued to fight to try to save his clan brother even though he was losing the battle.

Three dragons died that day, in a land so far from home there was no chance of recovering their corpses to resurrect them.

* * *

**The Test**

Scregor found himself trapped within the eternal void of nothingness. Knowing that he had died again, he cast about for some escape from this abyss. He found one of the gods of White Fang, and that deity remade his body. The people remembered Scregor dearly, and they loved him.

Scregor was very, very grateful, and decided that he owed his very life to White Fang now, for he would be nothing now without them. Fear became alien to him. So when the unseen deity told him that he needed to be retested to remain within the Army of the Hellspawn, he jumped at the chance to prove his strength and his loyalty.

A huge minotaur appeared in the room, which attacked Scregor on sight. He held out against the creature, and defeated it easily enough. "Too easy?" asked the invisible god, who then summoned three serpents.

Scregor had fought serpents before, the towering snakes that lived in the marsh west of town, but one at a time only, and they were hard enough singly. But he drew in a deep breath and fought. The serpents were incredibly agile for their size, and only his spells could touch them. But he held out against them, and one fell, then another, then finally the third fell. The battle took so long that the corpse of the first serpent had decayed into dust by the time the third one fell.

"You killed them all?" asked the deity, slightly surprised, almost sounding disappointed that the serpents had died. Then he summoned the last monster: Wolf.

Scregor looked at the Wolf. According to legend, this was the Wolf that sat at the side of the great god Greywolf, deity of the White Fang. But Scregor did not hesitate a moment when the divine voice told him to kill it.

The moment he attacked the Wolf, he threw a hail of comets at it, then saw a flurry of paws, claws, and fangs ripping at him, and badly wounded he fell unconscious. Thankful that the Wolf did not continue to fight then, he focused his clerical powers upon healing himself, and he slowly recovered. He picked up his swords, which the Wolf had knocked out of his hands, and looked.

Fully a dozen Wolves stood in the room, eying him sharply. "You're still alive?? " he heard the shocked divine voice. "You don't pass the test until all of the wolves are dead. Of course you can do it, Mobster did it."

Scregor thought, _I'm a better fighter than Mobster, I should be able to do this._ He breathed a great breath of gas and threw a rain of comets upon the Wolves, and in another frenzy of claws and fangs, blackness overcame him.

The deity resurrected Scregor, and waved a hand. The Wolves all vanished. Shaken, Scregor knew that he had died, but the magic of this world was strong enough to bring back the dead, so that it was easy for the deities of this world to do so as well.

Another Wolf appeared in the room. "Kill it," said the voice.

"And die again?" Scregor asked, dubiously.

"Yes, if need be."

"Then so be it," Scregor said with conviction. If he needed to die for his clan, then die he would, and gladly.

Five times more he fought the Wolf, and five times more he died, and five times the deity brought him back to life. Scregor was disappointed that everything he tried, he could not kill this Wolf. But then, the deity said:

"Congratulations, Scregor. You pass."

"I--did?" Scregor stammered.

"That Wolf is invincible. Even Chaos can't kill it," the mystical voice told him. "That was the test, you see. Not if you could kill the Wolf, but if you were willing to die for the clan."

Scregor was speechless. Then the deity make a motion, and a beautiful sword appeared from thin air. "And here is a gift for you. The Sword of the gods. And, for defeating everyone in the Arena, this shall be the one weapon you can always count on. Because you are loyal to the clan, this sword shall always be loyal to you, and return to you if you ever become separated from it."

Scregor could not refuse the gift, and as he wielded it it gleamed with the incredible power of the gods that was invested within it.

"You are the only person in the world to have such a sword," the deity told him. "Not even Chaos has one like it. Wear it proudly, Scregor."

* * *

**Challenging Chaos**

Soon even the dragons who had once defeated him fell to his ever-increasing skill and power. Until the day he challenged Chaos himself.

The people of the realm held their breath in anticipation of the fight, knowing the Scregor was undefeated, and Chaos, they believed, was surely invincible. All the world watched, it seemed, as the two greatest dragons who had ever lived fought it out in the arena.

Chaos wore a ring that protected him against any type of spell being cast upon him, but the downside was that he was also unable to cast healing spells on himself. Scregor held back and used his power gained as a cleric to heal every wound that the red dragon did to him, and slowly used his weapons to bring Chaos down little by little. Chaos saw that he was wounded, and removed his ring to heal himself--and there Scregor saw his opening. 

He threw a Dragon Shriek at Chaos, shaking the other dragon so that he could no longer defend himself against Scregor's attacks, then he cast unravel defense, so that Chaos's steel-hard scales could no longer protect him. By the time Chaos managed to get the ring back on his finger, Scregor had a clear advantage.

Scregor defeated Chaos that day, and all the world gaped in amazement. Chaos, however, was not satisfied. He insisted on fighting Scregor again and again. They fought seven times before Chaos conceded Scregor's victory. The second battle Chaos won. The third Scregor won. The fourth Chaos won. Then Scregor won the next three duels. By then he had learned Chaos's strategy well enough to defeat him every time.

Chaos, the dragon who had never been defeated in the arena, so far as anyone could remember, had fallen at last. Impressed with Scregor's skill, he named Scregor the new leader of the Hellspawn.

"You're one of the best warriors I've ever seen," Chaos told him. "Nobody has beaten me that badly."

In the caverns of the Hellspawn the next day, he heard a divine voice from nowhere. "So I hear you won a few battles."

"You could say that," Scregor said quietly, but proudly.

The deity waved his hands, and a gleaming plate of armor appeared, glowing faintly with divinity. "For kicking Chaos's butt. The Armor of the Gods."

Scregor accepted the mystical armor, and when he fit it on his body it fit perfectly, almost magically. He bowed to the unseen voice.

* * *

**Slaughter in the Caves**

"Jaster, Scregor," Chaos said. "A series of caverns has been uncovered north of the Tower of Force. Let's go explore it."

Scregor was at first reluctant to explore anywhere new, but no harm could come to him if he was with Chaos he realized, so he agreed to go along anyway.

Along the way, they met a young Underworld Knight. Chaos attacked, and Scregor and Jaster were pulled into the fight. A lone dragon could stand no chance against three Hellspawn warriors.

He realized sickly that Chaos was not only a tyrant, but a heartless butcher as well. But he also realized that even to think so could cause his own death. He laughed and joined in the slaughter.

* * *

**Betrayal and Suicide**

Scregor grew huge, immensely powerful, but in the later days he rarely left his caverns. All of the incredible and magical prizes he had won during his life on this world: the Centaurian Belt of War, the Sword and Armor of the gods, the Royal Healer's Ring of Protection, the skin of a Serpent, the Sash of Power, any many others. He was afraid, in fact. Afraid of losing all he had worked years to gain.

He had grown complacent like he had once before. But this time his hoard was different, but the meaning was the same.

Scregor had not grown weak during this time, but the world had changed around him. One day, Chaos challeneged him again.

He fought Chaos three times that day. And lost three times. Somehow, the power he had gained he had lost. He had been the best, and was no longer.

He was willing to fight Chaos as many times as it would take, but Chaos said, "Enough, Scregor."

The gold dragon backed down and said, "I know when I'm fairly beaten," and bowed to Chaos.

But secretly, inside, he was saddened, and bitter. He told himself that he had never really wanted to be the Arena Champion, but he was so reluctant to give up that pin. He had tried every way he could to keep it, and it finally took a god to force him to give it up. But, not wanting to be called a sore loser, he finally sighed and let it be.

Alone, he pondered his days in the Underworld Knights, and how he had betrayed them when they had been good to him. He had run off chasing a promise of White Fang being the greatest opportunity he would ever have. And it had been, but with a heavy price. He could never return to the Underworld Knights, never even leave White Fang, especially since he was still high in the rankings of the Hellspawn.

He worked in secret, with the ally of the Underworld Knights, called Shadow. He secretly gave them armor, weapons, and supplies. They were sadly outgunned in a war against White Fang, and being slaughtered daily. He was willing to betray his clan if it meant one less person would die senselessly.

Chaos and other Hellspawn stormed the Shadow Tower constantly, killing the young dragons and even mortals that made up the clan of Shadow. Scregor would not participate in this slaughter. He always found some excuse for not going along with it. He was meditating, he would say, or he was helping a youngster of White Fang learn the ropes.

He held up his oath to never harm an innocent victim that he had made years ago, even as his brothers and sisters did otherwise.

In secret he went to the mortal leaders of Shadow, Arid and Brogar. Things had gone too far, he decided. He would be nothing here but a mere pawn to Greywolf's games. He longed for something more.

He divided all of his treasure, millions of gold coins, and gave them to Arid and Brogar. Piece by piece he stripped off his hard-earned equipment, the best set in all the realms, and gave it all to Arid.

"Promise me one thing," he said to Arid.

"What's that?"

"That you put this equipment to good use."

Arid grinned, and said, "I'll do that."

"Anything you don't need, give it to other members of Shadow, just don't let it fall into the hands of White Fang," Scregor added.

Arid nodded. But Brogar was dubious. "Surely there's another way. This is childish, you don't need to kill yourself over this. Leave the clan if you hate it so badly. Shadow will protect you."

Scregor shook his head. "I can't leave. And Shadow can't protect against Chaos. Or Greywolf."

Even as Brogar kept insisting there must be another way, and Arid was putting on Scregor's armor, Scregor called to mind the one final power every had within themselves: the power of death. He could will himself into the void, and no corpse would remain behind for a resurrection.

He felt a divine gaze peering at him, and in his mind he told his clan, "Yes, you heard that right."

"Why, Scregor?" asked Greywolf in his mind.

"Because I am a coward. I am a disgrace to your clan. I have done nothing over the past few years but hide. I am no longer worthy."

"So be it, Scregor," Greywolf told him. "Do it, or I will do it myself."

There was no turning back now. He hugged Arid and Brogar and whispered, "Goodbye." He took one last breath, and consigned himself to the eternal void.


	3. Gates of the Arcana

But the spirit of the dragon lived on. He later regretted how he had left the position he had been in before. He had declared himself a coward and taken the coward's way out. In his heart he swore never to do so again, no matter how much he had to do he would not give up like that again.

Somehow, when he had entered the void, the magic he had worked on himself centuries before took hold again, and sent his spirit into a new unborn body. In a dream his dwarven mother saw a golden dragon flying proudly across the skies, and named her son Scregor.

Scregor trained in the arts of war and combat in the city of Meridian. When he became an adult, he founded a clan named Dragonblood and built its stronghold in the mountains of Doralis on Lezaria, which could be reached from Meridian by a teleport Nexus in the forest west of town.

But Dragonblood was not without its rivals, for upon a neighboring world sprang a clan called Highlander, lead by a warrior named Conor. Highlander commited several heinous deeds against Dragonblood, so Scregor declared war upon them.

The fighting was bitter, and though Highlander was outgunned, there were more members than there were in Dragonblood, and Highlander appeared to be getting divine intervention from its deity in order to support the war effort.

Dragonblood's deity, Keolah, in return, blessed Dragonblood with magical items which would let them be aware of those hidden near them and which would cause the wounds they gave to become more grevious than they would otherwise be. Scregor's comarades and he fought against the Highlanders. The war was going well until one of the Highlanders slew a Dragonblood member and stole the magical items from him.

Highlander slaughtered Dragonblood relentlessly, until one day Scregor felt Keolah's presence leave the stronghold. For reasons beyond her control, her attention was drawn away from this world to deal with a crisis elsewhere. Scregor, left to fend for himself, with all his friends left because of Keolah's absense, died under the overwhelming seige of Highlanders. The mighty clan of Dragonblood ceased to exist upon that world, and in despair Scregor consigned himself to the void.


	4. Abattoir

Once again Scregor's soul shot through the void, and into the tiny body of an unborn infant. The young dwarven woman who was to be his next mother dreamed of a warrior with the heart of a dragon. Dreaming of the power of a golden dragon's spirit, the dwarf named her newborn son Scregor.

The young dwarf trained in the arts of war, yet he swore himself oaths he could barely remember having sworn before. He swore never to harm innocents, and never to steal or dishonor himself or his comarades.

Scregor learned quickly as he had before, seeming to remember the art of combat from some half-remembered previous life. On day, a ranger who was older than he saw fit to test his skill in a surprise attack at the Crossroads. But Scregor fought back, and surprised the ranger, and defeated him.

When the ranger came back to retrieve his corpse, he asked Scregor, "What did you take, so I know what to replace?"

Scregor replied, "I don't loot."

Habuki, impressed by his honor, bowed before Scregor. "Would you be looking for a clan, O Honorable One? My clan, Tribual, would be glad to have you."

Scregor, however, had planned to join the clan Ka-tet, after reading about their code of honor and liking it, and in anticipation of such had devoted to their deity, Kyra. However, he had not yet met any of the leaders of Ka-tet, and was eager to join a clan. He agreed to join Tribual.

Taath, the leader of Tribual, inducted him gladly into the clan after Scregor asserted that he was an experienced fighter. 

* * *

**Joining Ka-tet**

One day he met Badastaz, the leader of Ka-tet, and asked if he could join, even though he was already a member of Tribual. Badastaz offered a dual, and he and Scregor battled in the streets of Kylslayn, and Badastaz won.

"You are a good fighter, Scregor. You have incredible potential."

How Badastaz could tell that from defeating him so seemingly easily, Scregor could not determine. "I want to join Ka-tet," he said.

"You'll have to leave Tribual first," Badastaz told him.

Tribual was the one stability in his life at the time, it was a thing he was reluctant to leave, for they had not treated him poorly, even though they had not been particularly helpful. Scregor experienced deja vu over this, for somewhere in the recesses of his memory he recalled a clan that had treated him well that he betrayed, on the promise of something better.

"This is a decision you won't regret," Badastaz told him. "Ka-tet is the best clan on this world, there aren't many of us but we are strong and experienced fighters."

It was a promise of something better, and he was torn trying to decide. It was not a good thing to leave one's clan, on this world or any other. But finally he decided, this was what he had wanted all along. "Alright," he said, "I'll do it."

At his request, Miffy, the deity of Tribual, outcast him from the clan, and Kyra summoned him into a jungle filled with snakes and a panther that spoke.

Badastaz told him, "Ask for Kyra's blessing to join Ka-tet."

Hesitantly, Scregor turned to the goddess and said, "Kyra, may I have your blessing in joining your clan?"

Kyra smiled upon him and gave him her blessing, and Badastaz thus inducted him into Ka-tet. 

* * *

**Tempted to Treachery**

He entered Kylslayn Square, where Amnect, the deity of Treachery, and Pandragon, number one of Treachery, were standing. Pandragon said to him, "All your Ka-tetians are cowards, sitting in their clanhall all day. You're the only one among them with any guts."

Scregor talked with them a while, then a mage named Khelban entered the square and began casting fireballs on him!

Scregor's fighting instincts kicked in, and he disarmed Khelban and bashed into him, distracting him enough to keep him from casting too many spells. Khelban was defeated.

Pandragon was cheering him on, and he said "Good fight. I told you Khelban always likes a good brawl."

Scregor chuckled. "All too easy."

Pandragon suggested, "Why don't you leave these Ka-tet weaklings and join Treachery?"

Scregor grinned and said, "That would be. . . treacherous."

He returned to his clanhall and talked with Badastaz, the leader of Ka-tet. He snickered and said, "Pandragon's trying to get me to join Treachery."

"Because he knows you're good," Badastaz replied. "The last person who left Ka-tet died many times."

He admitted to Badastaz that for the first time in a long time he was afraid, but the immortal didn't entirely understand what he was saying. Scregor, he thought, was afraid of what the other members of Ka-tet would think of him being in the clan. Scregor, actually, was afraid of what Badastaz would do to him if he followed his temptation and left the clan for Treachery.

So he went to Pandragon, and told him, "You see, even though I would like to join Treachery, I cannot, for Badastaz will know what I do, and would kill me for doing so."

But Scregor had his misgivings about Ka-tet. They had treated him well, and he was reluctant to betray them, but they were not the same clan that they had been before. When he had joined, years earlier, they were a small group of skilled people willing to fight for what they believe in. Now, he saw members of Ka-tet disgrace themselves by avoiding fights whenever they could, so it seemed. Treachery talked of the cowardice of Ka-tet, and it hurt Scregor to hear his beloved clan so disgraced.

Once upon a time, he remembered a clan whose behaviour was disgracing, and he had taken the easy way out in destroying himself rather than sit back and watch this happen. But it hadn't helped, for he had learned that Shadow had been destroyed utterly and left without a trace a few months after he had left. And upon that world, new incarnations of White Fang and Hellspawn still lived, under slightly different names, but Scregor knew better, they were the same clan they had been before.

So he said to one of his fellow members of Ka-tet, "This clan is supposed to have a code of honor, right?"

Trakimar replied, "Yes, it does."

"Various members of this clan, however, have not been upholding it."

"So I've noticed," Trakimar answered.

"Including its leader."

"Badastaz?" Trakimar gasped. "What did he do exactly?"

"He interfered in a fight between two young members of Ka-tet and Treachery by healing the young Ka-tetian cleric, Kithere. As good as double teaming someone."

Trakimar nodded. "Have you spoken with him about this?"

Scregor shook his head. "That's why I was asking for him."

"Maybe you should take this up with Kyra."

"I see two possible solutions, neither of which I like."

Trakimar said, "Which are?"

"Either challenge Badastaz for leadership of the clan, which I don't see happening, or leave the clan, which I like even less."

"I and a friend of mine are planning to start our own clan soon," Trakimar commented.

"Know this, Trakimar. If I do end up leaving Ka-tet it will not be for lack of honor."

"If you do, I'll make sure to induct you if I start my own clan."

Scregor nodded. 

* * *

**A Decision**

The next day Scregor found Badastaz and said, "We need to talk."

Badastaz nodded and said to meet him in a private place in a few minutes, and Scregor did so.

"What's up?" asked Badastaz

"Ka-tet is supposed to have a code of honor, right?"

"Right."

"Various members of the clan, however, have not been upholding it," Scregor told him.

"Tell me who and they will pay for it," Badastaz replied.

"Many members of Ka-tet have been spending all their time in the clanhall and never coming out to fight."

"This practice will be stopping soon. Taradesian will be one of the first to go."

"She doesn't care about anything but sex, she never fights," Scregor said in disgust.

"Who else has been dishonoring the clan?" asked Badastaz.

"You have," Scregor said quietly.

"Why? What did I do?"

"You interfered with a dual between two young people far less experienced and skilled than you."

"Helping a fellow clan member isn't illegal."

"It's as good as double teaming them." It makes us no better than Treachery, he thought, but didn't say it.

They talked for a while, then Badastaz said, "If you want to become a Master, I can help you get there."

Scregor nodded. "I would. One thing stands in my way, and that is Pandragon."

Badastaz said, "I'll take care of him."

"Do you realize, Badastaz..."

"Realize what?"

"How close I came? No, how close I came to joining Treachery. I was that close to betraying Ka-tet."

Badastaz grimaced and said, "Ugh. That would have been a bloodbath."

Scregor nodded. "Aye. And you know I would have regretted it later."

Then Badastaz helped Scregor out and Scregor swore to him, "I will never betray Ka-tet." 

* * *

**Lich-Queen**

Scregor was sent on a quest to kill the lich-queen in the githyanki keep, and though he was at first certain he could kill her, Ronaldo told him that her guardians were hard to get past. Scregor stocked up on healing potions and headed up the rainbow toward the astral plane.

At the bridge at the rainbow's end, the astral guardian confronted him and said that he would enter only over the guardian's dead body. Scregor attacked and disarmed the guardian, but it cast spells upon him and he fled to heal himself.

Ronaldo agreed to go along and help, so she and Scregor went back up the astral gate and killed the guardian. Upon entering, Scregor led the way toward the githyanki keep because he knew the way, having been there many times before. They fought past the guardians without much trouble, then when they came before the altar chamber where the lich-queen was, Scregor turned to Ronaldo and said "You know I have to kill her myself."

So Ronaldo stayed outside while Scregor entered to battle the lich-queen. The fight was, from Scregor's point of view, going rather well, until the lich-queen shook him and bashed into him, distracting him and preventing him from drinking his healing potions. Off-balance, he tried to kill her still, and Ronaldo entered the room. He shouted to Ronaldo to kill the night hags the queen had summoned, but she didn't hear him. Darkness took him, and he was killed, and reincarnated immediately back in his clanhall.

Knowing that his death had brought the loss of gifts that he had once possessed Kyra had given formerly to her devotees but gave no longer, he knew it was inevitable and went to retrieve his corpse, Ronaldo saying that she would help. But when they got up there Scregor could only grab a few items off of his body before the queen killed him again, and Ronaldo begged Kyra to return him to his clanhall, which she granted.

Badastaz returned then and asked, "How many times did you die?"

Scregor said, "Twice."

"If you die five times I can give you credit for the quest."

Scregor nodded and promptly returned to the astral plane, even though he was poorly equipped and he knew he could not defeat her. Three more times he died, as he knew he would, and Badastaz placed his five corpses in the clanhall and gave him credit for the quest.

"I could have killed her, you know," Scregor insisted with a sigh.

It rather reminded him of a time a lifetime ago when he had been willing to die over and over again just to prove he was worthy for the clan. He remembered how he had felt that he had nothing to lose, and therefore could give his heart and soul to the clan. He smiled to himself as he realized that he now felt that way again. 

* * *

**Vitalis**

Scregor worked his way up, learning his skills and completing quest after quest. Then Vitalis, a member of Treachery, showed up, who he now realized was about as skilled as he was. And Vitalis wanted to fight.

Buying as many healing potions as he could afford, Scregor agreed to fight Vitalis. They met in town and fought mercilessly, disarming one another and drinking healing potions like there was no tomorrow. Finally Scregor snatched up Vitalis's weapons before the other could retrieve them after disarming him, and bashed into him with his shoulder so that he could not cast spells. It took twenty violet healing potions, which was all Scregor could afford, but he won the battle.

Vitalis returned to retrieve his corpse, and Scregor bowed before him and returned his weapons to him. He knew it was legal to steal items from someone he had fairly killed, but it was not his way so he did not do it.

Shaking from the exhilaration, Scregor returned to his clanhall and tried to calm down. It had been a very long time since he had felt so good after a fight. That he could recall offhand, probably the last time was the dual with Chaos. It was a feeling that he very much liked, he discovered.

A while later, Vitalis asked him, "You ready to go again?"

"Again?" said Scregor. "I'm broke, I can't afford to buy more heals."

"Then go get some money, it's easy to get."

"That's why I was intending to do once I stop shaking," Scregor told him.

"Why are you shaking?"

"From excitement."

Vitalis grinned. "Exhilarating, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

Scregor sold some extra weapons that he had picked up and bought as many violet potions as he could afford. Vitalis was standing in Kylslayn Square, and rather than let him get the jump on him, Scregor attacked first.

During their second fight, Vitalis never even managed to hit Scregor. Some swift swordwork and the ranger was dead fast.

Scregor looked at Vitalis's equipment and told him, "You might want to consider upgrading your weapons."

They discuss the merits of various weapons for a while, then Vitalis went off to find the ones Scregor was using. As he left he told Scregor to get ready for round three.

Scregor was running very low on gold and had no immediate way of obtaining more of it, other than tracking down and killing all the thieves in town. Which was impractical, since they were good at hiding, and Scregor, since dying to the lich-queen, no longer had the heightened awareness that he used to have.

Scregor returned to his clanhall and rested for a while, then Vitalis was ready to fight again, and he took a deep breath and went into Kylslayn to fight him. Something, however, went disasterously wrong during this fight, and Scregor was unable to use the heals that he had bought from the clan store for the simple reason that he didn't know how to use them. Too late to do anything about it now, Scregor fought as well as he could and calmly faced death as it took him again.

When he returned to get his corpse, he found that Vitalis had stolen his tattoo and earring. He calmly told Vitalis that of course he was going to fight him again, because he had every intention of regaining those items, for they belonged to his clan and Badastaz had given them to him.

Both went their separate ways and rested up for a while, then Scregor fought Vitalis again, this time knowing how to use the heals from his clan, but lost again.

Vitalis took Scregor's steel girth, but returned it, which immensely confused Scregor but he didn't particularly feel like arguing about something he was benefiting from. He simply bowed before Vitalis and returned to his clanhall once again.

The next day as he left his clanhall he passed Trakimar saying that he was hunting Vitalis. Scregor merely sighed internally and bid him good-day. He then spoke to Vitalis and said, "What, you're not going to try to goad me into a fight?"

"No, Trakimar," Vitalis told him.

"He'll die."

"I hope so."

As Scregor went off on his own to work on gaining experience, he heard Vitalis cry in the distance, "Help! I'm being attacked by Trakimar!"

He calmly went about his business while waiting for the telltale death cry that would tell him who the victor was. What seemed like a long time later, Trakimar screamed "Arrgh!" and died.

"I should take up gambling," Scregor commented to no one in particular.

"Vitalis took my taz teeth!" Trakimar exclaimed.

"Is this my cue?" Scregor asked.

"No, it's mine, if you want," Badastaz replied.

"Where is he?" asked Scregor.

"He recalled," Trakimar answered.

Scregor swore.

"He's hiding in his clanhall," Badastaz growled.

"Give them back!" Trakimar demanded.

"I don't think so," Vitalis answered. "Tattoos and earrings are easy to come by, but tazmanian devil teeth are hard to find."

"Come out and fight!" Badastaz shouted to Vitalis.

"I don't think so," Vitalis replied. "You'll have your chance tomorrow."

The next day, Badastaz fought Vitalis in Kylslayn and killed him a couple times. When Scregor arrived on the scene, Vitalis was sitting in the square sniffling and crying and pouting. It was almost laughable to see someone who had been strong enough to kill Scregor taken down like this, but Scregor did not laugh. 

* * *

**Loyalty and Trust**

"It must suck to be in Ka-tet," Taath said. "There's never anyone around to fight."

"Oh, be nice, Taath," Scregor snickered.

"Why?" Taath asked. "Why should I be nice? What would being nice get me?"

"Respect."

Taath shook his head. "Kindness doesn't earn respect. Fear does. Tell me, who do you respect?"

"Badastaz," Scregor replied.

"He is powerful. Fear factor there."

"I like power," Scregor grinned.

"Power, honor, respect," Taath commented, "they all mean nothing."

"Then what does?" asked someone.

"Loyalty."

Scregor blinked, for Taath had struck very close to home. He walked over to Taath and said quietly, "It took me a very long time to learn loyalty."

"You must not have had a very good teacher."

"I didn't have a teacher."

"Not read the right books, then," Taath went on. "What do you know of loyalty? Wisdom oftimes comes easier to those who stoop than those who soar."

They had a lengthy philosophical discussion, then Scregor calmly went off to find something--or someone--to kill.

Scregor was driven by a desire he was long accustomed to, a desire for power, an ambition held only barely in check at times lest he become reckless. Dragon's power that had twice been his he desired to gain again. He dreamed of a day when he could again claim the power he had twice gained and twice lost.

He killed in Skolville, stubbornly building up the skills he would need, then suddenly the city administrative head proved too much for him and killed him. He screamed in frustration. Trying again the next day to gain experience, the admin head killed him once again. Pandragon, who had been bugging him for a fight, asked if he needed help recovering his corpse.

"No, I've got it," Scregor replied, sighing in frustration.

"If you want to group we could kill some monsters really fast," Pandragon offered.

"Sorry, I follow the first rule of fighting. Never trust a fighter who isn't in your clan, and sometimes not even then."

"I give you my word as number one of Treachery that I will not try to kill you until you gave attained the next skill level."

"I don't trust you and trust the word of a Treach even less," Scregor replied with a sigh.

Scregor went back and killed the administrative head and returned to his clanhall to complain for five minutes. "%$#@&! Okay, now that that's out of my system, I will stop bitching now."

Then Pandragon told him, "If you want to group, I'm in Kylslayn Square."

Scregor was leaving his clanhall, and Underlord warned, "Careful, Pandragon is invisible in the square."

"I know," he said, and went into Kylslayn.

He walked into the square, and Pandragon stood there, the carrot he had eaten allowing him to see him even though he was invisible. They stood there for a while, Scregor waiting for the other to make his move, whether to ask Scregor to follow him or to attack. He was tense, alert, ready to fight, but Pandragon did not attack.

Pandragon said, "I could have gotten you, you know."

"I know," replied Scregor.

"Follow me," Pandragon offered. And Scregor followed him.

During the entire time they were teamed up, Scregor remained on full alert, ready to attack reflexively if Pandragon went back on his word. But Pandragon did not attack. At the end of the day, Scregor had not yet reached the next skill level, and he and Pandragon parted ways for the night. As they were leaving Skolville, Pandragon commented, "I just need a tattoo."

And Scregor thought coldly, he was very patient as well.

Over the next few days he avoided going too near Pandragon for whatever reason, and Badastaz kept Pandragon occupied enough that Scregor could go about gaining experience without being bothered. Pandragon offered to group again, but Scregor said that thank you he was doing quite well on his own.

"I want to make Master, but something keep standing in the way," he said. "Taath has been threatening to kill me."

"He can't attack you," Underlord told him. "He is a Master and more experienced than you."

"He can't? Then why has he been threatening me?"

"Psychological warfare."

Scregor pondered. "But what I'm really concerned about is Pandragon. At this rate I'll be in his range for a good long time."

"Blind him," Underlord suggested.

"I'm a warrior," Scregor told him. "Not a mage or a cleric."

"Gouge?"

"I don't know that skill," Scregor replied.

"Stun?"

"I haven't learned it yet. The best I know yet is bash."

Underlord said, "Then your only choice, really, is to avoid the fight altogether. There is no dishonor in running from a fight you know you cannot win."

Scregor simply pondered to himself, there isn't?

So as he sat in the clanhall at night resting up from a long day of fighting, he murmured to himself, "I will make Master. I will make Master." He repeated it over and over, like a mantra, as if repeating it would make his dream come true. "I will make Master. I will make Master."

Slowly he gained in power, increasing his skill by inches. He noticed that there never seemed to be a Number Two Ka-tet around, because he knew Badastaz was the leader and cloud was number one. So one day he asked Badastaz who the number two was, and if the position was open he would like to apply for it. A few days later Badastaz gave him the position.

Taath showed up not long afterward and started trying to goad him into a fight. Scregor knew that Taath could not attack him unless he agreed. Taath said that he would like to congratulate him on his new position and give him a big hug. Scregor, however, knew that he merely wanted to fight. Taath promised that if they fought he would only use fireball and not take anything. Finally, after half an hour of goading, Scregor gave in to the promise of leaving him alone and agreed to fight Taath just to shut him up.

Scregor put up as good of a fight as he could, but inevitably lost to the greater power of the master. But Taath kept his word and took nothing from his corpse. "You happy now?" he asked

Taath nodded. 

* * *

**Mastery and Leadership**

When Badastaz ascended to the ranks of the deities, Scregor requested leadership of Ka-tet in his stead, for he could not be both. It was granted to him. Chade became his number one.

Scregor finally, through hardship and trial, and extreme patience, achieved Mastery. The magic that had long been denied to him was finally his, every spell in the world within his grasp. Quickly he ascended through the ranks of the Master, determined and strong-willed.

But Chade believed that the only reason he took up leadership of Ka-tet was because Scregor was eager for power. One day, he challenged Scregor for leadership of the clan.

Scregor really didn't want to kill Chade, and that held him back. Nonetheless he fought, and he was defeated. Chade took over leadership, and told Scregor that he need not leave, that he would be allowed to remain anyway. But Scregor would not have it. In shame, he walked away from the halls of the Ka-tet, never to return. 

* * *

**Drifting**  


From that point on, Scregor drifted, and wandered, uncertain of what to do or where to go. At some point, he ended up in the clan of Ragnarok. Yet he refused any position, and took no pleasure from it. It was a roof over his head and a place to sleep, but he held little love nor loyalty to them.

In his wanderings, he drifted away, lacking the will or the strength to consign himself to the Void and leave this place. Detached, he watched the world he had once loved turn sour, weak, and soft. Rather than the world of honorable wars it had once been, a cowardly peace now reigned. People were afraid to fight. With a sigh, he finally walked away from Kylslayn for the last time.

No stories were told of this once brave warrior, no epic ballads sung to children around the fire. Forgotten in the mists of time, yet somewhere, the dragon still lived on, and would ever be reborn to live again. 

* * *

**The Return**

One day, Scregor's wanderings brought him back to Kylslayn, with memories of his life there ringing in his head. He lacked his power of old, he realized, but nonetheless he returned to the halls of Ragnarok that he had made his home once.

Undaunted, Scregor worked to regain his strength. But in the time he had been away, the realms had changed, and things were not as they were before. Most of those he had once known and called his friends were gone. Even the very layout of the land was different.

He petitioned to the god Kylotan to restore his ancient powers, and to his surprise and joy his prayers were answered. The powers of the Master were again his, and more. Stronger than ever before, he became. With profuse thanks to Kylotan, he set off again to the halls of the Ragnarok.


	5. Imperial Conflict

In a galaxy far from the realms he had once lived in, Scregor was reborn again. He took the name Shevai, and took over rulership of a world called Shevaia. It was inhabited by a race of feline humanoids, yet he was not of that race.

He soon learned that his world was part of a family of empires in a galaxy called Milky Way, lead by a man named Shodan. Shodan was a good man, and they were soon discussing strategy and planning. Scregor sent out attack fleets and gained more planets to add to his empire. Shodan granted him worlds from members of their family who were no longer caring for them, as well.

But their family was weak, and had few powerful empires to protect it. As they were being destroyed by the Spaceborne, Scregor urged his family to fight back and make the war as costly as possible for them, and not just give up. He was angry that they were being sold out, and fought back all he could, to little effect.

Shodan proposed that some of them take a ship and set up a new family in the Sagittarius Dwarf galaxy instead, to start fresh and become strong without the oppression in Milky Way. Scregor agreed to go along, and turned his planets over to those who were remaining, and left. 

* * *

**Sagittarius Dwarf**

There came four of them from Milky Way to take over a few planets to begin their empires in the Sagittarius Dwarf. Yet even from the start, things were not all peaceful. There became a debate over whether Shodan or Scregor should be leader. But it ended in the decision that Scregor should be leader.

Yet, it seemed that the system they had chosen for their home was already inhabited. And the inhabitants were not overly friendly to being taken over. They wished for Thunder Wolf to be leader, rather than Scregor. He tried to bring them together and form some sort of cooperation, because he was stuck with them if he did not kill them, but they remained stubborn.

For many months, Scregor and Thunder Wolf wrestled for leadership. Scregor continued to make arguments and try to win over the undecided members of the family. But in the end, Scregor prevailed. The family became named Furry Apocalypse.

They explored many planets, and grew in power, and became the most powerful family in the galaxy. To cement their hold, they allied with the only two other families at all relative in power to them. But things were not entirely trusting between them and their allies, and behind one another's backs they were constantly plotting to do the other in.

Still, the other members of the family refused to come to the council hall and discuss plans, only to insult Scregor and his friends. Only one of them, Delirium, was at all cooperative.

Scregor planned a war against a neighboring family, and it had been agreed between the two families that no attacks would commence for one year. He ordered his family to hold off attacks for that year, and spend the time building up and saving up money and training their forces.

One Excon did not cooperate however, did not listen nor care about his plans. He attacked two months ahead of schedule, laying to ruin the carefully laid plans. In retaliation for this violation, their enemies attacked, and Scregor's family was as yet unprepared. The initial losses were staggering.

Angrily, Scregor reprimanded Excon, and threw all his resources into fighting off the invaders. He managed to extract them from some of their family's systems, and after a long battle even managed to reclaim some of the systems that had been taken. But his efforts and those of the empires loyal to him were in vain, and unsupported by the rest of the family, without which they could not succeed.

In frustration, Scregor brought the leaders of the empires still loyal to him to the council hall, and told them that he would allow them to leave, and would go himself, if they so wished. Two had already left, before the war even started, which had annoyed Scregor greatly, for he felt they had betrayed him. But now, the five loyal members agreed to go. And they left, and went their separate ways. 

* * *

**Disappointment**

Scregor took his ship and returned to the Milky Way galaxy alone. After wandering from system to system for a short time, he finally ended up in a family with some old friends of his. At first he was exstatic, but that quickly faded.

He tried to help the family all he could, but his empire was weak, and the race he had taken leadership of was unsuited to combat. No matter how much money or resources he sent to his family mates, they never shared the planets they conquered with him.

After some time, he proclaimed that High Heavens, the family leader, was a complete ass, and took his ship and left the Milky Way behind. 

* * *

**Pinwheel**

With a sigh, Scregor piloted his ship to the newly colonized Pinwheel galaxy, in hopes of better luck. Almost immediately, he was elected leader of his family, and proceeded to cover the galaxy with his people's fast ships. They were a fierce, warlike race of winged people, who valued speed and power over anything else.

Scregor controlled one hundred planets, after being victorious in his first war in Pinwheel. He had laughed as the fool attacked him even after he had warned him first, and had been destroyed.

But it was not to last, however. A disaster of galactic proportions befell the universe. Scregor took to his ship and barely escaped alive as turmoil wrecked the galaxy and stars exploded and collapsed. The destruction was widespread and very sudden on a galactic scale, but not entirely unexpected. The way it happened was unexpected, however.

* * *

**Insane Cow Posse**

Over the course of many years, the galaxies stabilized again, and became safe for colonization. Scregor decided to return to the Milky Way galaxy, and to his surprise became reunited with several who had been his allies in Sagittarius Dwarf.

Nimmersatt was the first leader of the Insane Cow Posse, and Scregor supported him willingly, being tired of leadership. Yet after a few months of being leader, Nimmersatt asked Scregor to take over the position instead. He accepted.

However, maintaining an honorable family was difficult with Nimmersatt there. Nimmersatt was very dishonorable and fierce, never resting and constantly looking for new targets to devour. Scregor found it difficult to restrain him, and generally found it best to give him targets to destroy rather than let him choose his own.

The most powerful family in the galaxy was known as Three Girls, although ironically not one of the "girls" was actually female. They offered Scregor a proposition. They wished to destroy a certain family, but needed outposts in their systems to do so. Scregor possessed many planets in their systems. They agreed to give Scregor double the planets he gave them, and leave him in peace forever, if he would help them. Now, Scregor didn't particularly want to comply, for he felt it dishonorable. The family they meant to destroy were his friends. Yet he also knew that if he did not comply, he and his family would be destroyed instead. Thus, with a sigh, Scregor handed over the planets they asked for.

The war was devastating for his friends, and Scregor watched as hundreds of their planets were taken. When he spoke to them, he apologized, and told them that their enemies had forced him into a deal. They said that they understood, and said it wasn't his fault, but it didn't really make him feel any better.

* * *

**Smaug**

But, in the meantime, Nimmersatt was attacked, and he was hit hard, and lost about twenty planets. Scregor tried to contact him, but he disappeared, holed away underground. Nimmersatt reappeared some months later, and suddenly attacked his aggressors with vast fighter fleets. After he destroyed their air force, he asked Scregor to take in his droids and capture their planets. Scregor did so, and many planets were taken, and their enemies were removed from their systems.

Scregor got word that his enemy's allies were planning to strike, however. Thus he met in private with their leader, Smaug, and they agreed to a ceasefire. Smaug promised that he would let his family know and they would not attack. But Smaug said that his family wanted war, and he might not be able to stop them.

Smaug, however, went back on his word, and but a few days later, backstabbed the Insane Cow Posse. He claimed that he could not control his family, and it was their decision to attack. Many planets were taken, but Smaug could not break Scregor's powerful army of droids. Instead they slaughtered the other members of his family, and in frustration, Nimmersatt abandoned the remnants of his empire and left the galaxy.

Frustrated as well, Scregor decided to try to get a peace agreement, and discovered that one of his family members was a friend of one of Smaug's. Thus, he invited him as well as a couple other members of Smaug's family into a neutral location to discuss the matters privately. First he congratulated Mayham on being the only person who had been able to break through his droid army, even tho he had not taken many planets.

"We had agreed to a ceasefire," Scregor told them.

"Smaug told us nothing about a ceasefire," Mayham frowned. "This isn't the first time he has done this, either. He is very dishonorable."

When they left, denying that they had wanted the war, they agreed to try to stop Smaug from further attacks. They also said that Smaug had wanted to take four hundred planets from Scregor's family, which would have crippled them. But now, Smaug was fighting alone. His family members refused to attack. He made a few more vain attacks which were easily repelled by Scregor's droids, before sending Scregor a message.

"I grow bored of this war. Do you want a NAP?" Smaug said.

Scregor chuckled to himself, knowing the real reasons behind it, and signed the treaty with Smaug. He was confident that Smaug's family would hold him to it.

Thus, his family lost only two hundred of its previous eight hundred planets in the war, rather than the four hundred planets that was planned. And Scregor himself was all but untouched, having lost a net total of two planets. Without Nimmersatt around to ignite wars, Scregor turned his efforts to building a peaceful family, and defense, rebuilding what was destroyed in the war and learning to live with fewer planets. Many of his planets he handed over to those who had lost heavily, and as well, after the war was over, he received his planets as promised from Three Girls. 

* * *

**Round's End**

After many years of peace, Scregor decided to relieve his boredom by attacking a family member called the Snatchery, because he was annoying. They fought for a long time, and had fun pitting their droids against each other, and learned a lot from it. In the end, even though Scregor had originally disliked Snatch, they became friends.

In spite of the civil war, Scregor's family had grown in power much over the last several years. They ended up being the sixth most powerful family in the galaxy, beyond any expectations.

Then, the mysterious galactic occurance known as the End of Round occured, and the power of their empires was reduced to mere memory... 

* * *

**A New Era**

Scregor remained with his family into the next era, even though few of the old members did. Again they chose him as leader, and they grew powerful. They allied with their old allies again, who had been good friends and loyal in spite of everything, and proceeded to explore and colonize worlds.

From the start, things were not all right. One of their neighbors decided to make things difficult. Scregor had been working on a treaty with their former leader, but she had disappeared and failed to complete it, yet had told her family they had a treaty even though it had not been made official yet. Snatch decided to take a number of planets from them. They protested, calling him a NAP-breaker, and blamed Scregor for it. They retaliated and took a number of planets from Mongis, Scregor's financial manager.

Scregor tried to explain to them that it had been a misunderstanding, and they agreed that all planets would be returned to their previous owners. His family then proceeded to take back the planets taken from Mongis. However, then they were attacked again, and the planets taken back, and more planets taken. Anakin, Scregor's vice leader, went to reclaim them.

Frustrated and annoyed at their behavior, Scregor made Mongis his war general, and they planned a war of retaliation. Meanwhile, however, their allies were under attack, and were in sad shape. They had lost many of their best generals, but Scregor told them he would not abandon his allies, no matter what. He gave them a number of planets and worked out a peace agreement with their enemies.

After a few weeks of relative peace, Scregor's family were ready to attack his enemies. Scregor declared war and his family sent out their fleets. Two hundred planets were taken in the space of a few short days. It was a glorious victory.

The leader of their enemy decided to send out messages telling of Scregor's "dishonorable" actions to many leaders of the galaxy. Scregor was quite amused when he got a message from one of these saying, "I do not need to listen to this petty whining. I hope you crush them."

Meanwhile, however, the northern reaches of their empires were being attacked by a family much stronger than they. Scregor knew war would be costly, and knew that they could not win. There was also a particularly annoying member of the family called RingRing, who continually went into the family council hall and insulted Scregor. He decided he wanted him dead. Thus, he sent to Tia an offer of fifty planets in exchange for a permanent NAP. Her family accepted immediately.

He sent her RingRing's planet list, and said that these planets were no longer being looked after. But RingRing decided to be difficult, and whined at them. Tia told him that he would have to take the planets from RingRing himself to give them, they would not take them from him. Scregor was a bit annoyed, but proceeded to comply.

However, even as he did this, another disaster wrecked the galaxy, that would wash it in deadly radiation. Scregor and his family holed up in cryostorage, shielded from the radiation, set to emerge when radiation levels dropped. 

* * *

**Downfall**

When Scregor and his family emerged, what of them were still alive, they entered into a changed galaxy. Most of their people had died as well, so they set about rebuilding and forming a new empire.

Fortune did not go their way this time, and they were simultaneously attacked by six families at once. Crushed, destroyed, in ruins, Scregor watched as many of his old family members left, and with a sigh, left as well. He hated to give up like that, but he considered it a lost cause, and not worth it without his old friends.


	6. Droidarena

It came to pass that Scregor came to another world, a world where the main activity seemed to be arenas fought with droids. He was intrigued and interested in this sport, and he took up the code name Mad Druid, and constructed a droid named Green Lightning, and proceeded to enter the arenas.

"This droid sport amuses me," he said to himself. "I will be the Newbie from Hell, and kick everyone's butts." Thus he created a one-man corporation named Newbies from Hell, not to team up with anyone, but to proclaim that.

But the corporations powered the Senate-held arenas, and he knew it would likely be to his benefit to join one and team up with others. Thus he logged into the MonsterNet and looked through the corp ads section to find one to his liking. One of them caught his interest, and made him laugh, the ad for Loner Inc. Thus he put in his application, and was approved shortly. He had, however, looked over the power of the Gods of Droidarena with interest, but thought it unlikely that such a powerful corp would take in a beginner like him.

He became fast friends with the corp leader, Murdoc, who made him an approver. One day he approved a young lad named Andrew Morrow, and he had a feeling about him that he couldn't explain. Others, he also brought into the corp, recruiting ones he thought would do well and be loyal.

Scregor then set up a central headquarters, like the council halls in his empires in previous lives, where the corp members could meet and discuss matters, and make plans, and organize arenas. As he urged them to come, the place became more active, and he began enjoying the sport greatly. He and four others of the corp would pick arenas and enter them, and they began doing very well.

Quickly Scregor advanced, faster than they believed it possible, his skill surpassing even those who had been around longer than him. It became his goal to defeat Tigerj, the top decker in Droidarena, before the end of the season. He focused on having fun, and would often enter arenas sure to lose for the sheer fun of it. Murdoc had also promoted him to financial adviser, and he enjoyed the job very much.

Of the corp members using the meeting room, Andrew Morrow was one of the most frequent visitors. Yet often there would be arguments involving Andrew, Stark, and Alpha, which he tried to resolve. It was very frustrating at times, even as it was exhilerating.

The last day the season came along, and it was very late at night. He and Hell were looking for an arena, and he said to Hell, "Do you want to fight GoDA one last time?"

Hell merely grinned, and agreed, and they entered the arena. Scregor wearily then went to sleep, and dreamed of blowing Tigerj's droid Firefly to pieces. Yet when he awoke and looked at his black box recording, he jumped for joy as he saw that Green Lightning had defeated not only Firefly, but one of the other GoDA's as well, before being destroyed. Happily, he and his corpmates celebrated a good end to the season. 

* * *

**Gods of Droidarena**

After a long wait, the Senate announced the official opening of Season 2 of Droidarena. He eagerly rejoined Loner Inc. and returned to the headquarters he had helped to build. Murdoc decided to make him one of the leaders of the corp.

Scregor, with his skill and determination, quickly became one of the best deckers in Droidarena. He was dissatisfied with Loner Inc. now, however, and with surprise and disappointment looked on GoDA, once one of the best corps, now in the lower rankings. They deserved better than that, he thought. He also knew that Loner Inc. was too disorganized to support a high ranking decker for long. He spoke also with several members of GoDA.

Thus, he discussed with Andrew, Alpha, and Rhuan the possibility of joining GoDA. Rhuan was eager to be part of a corp where his strategy and number crunching abilities could be put to use. But Andrew didn't want to betray Murdoc. After a lengthy debate, however, they agreed. Hell, unfortunately, got wind of it, and was outraged, and threatened to fire him on the spot, but he said he wanted to wait for Murdoc. Some hours later, Murdoc showed up and he spoke with him.

"While I've enjoyed my stay here," Scregor told him, "I do not entirely agree with the entire loner philosophy. I'd prefer a more organized corp, with closer teamwork and cooperation."

Thus with that, Murdoc told him to have anyone that was going with him out of the corp within twelve hours, and no retaliation would be made against them. Hell sent him a nasty message, though, screaming that GoDA was not fun and he was a traitor. Nonetheless, Scregor went, and joined GoDA as soon as possible.

Quickly he learned that a lot of GoDA's bad reputation was misplaced, or so he believed at the time, and he found them to be very nice and fun people to be around. For several weeks he was very happy and enjoyed himself in his new home, thriving as one of the best deckers in the arenas.

* * *

**The Neon Tigers**

Scregor became friends with the leader of The Neon Tigers, Elysian. He liked Ely very much, but some of GoDA's more recent actions he could not agree with nor defend. Becoming quite upset with Big Bad Droid's tendancy to tell him untruths, his sense of honor awoke. Elysian was being constantly attacked with spies, but did not know who the culprit was. No matter how much he increased his defenses, it still was not enough. Maluke tried to tell Scregor that it was a member of Muppets who was doing it, and Scregor passed that along to Ely, defending GoDA against the suspicions that it was them.

Then Scregor heard Maluke complaining about one of the members of the Senate spying on him for attacking Elysian. Scregor was outraged and upset, for all he had defended his corp for the attacks, he could not justify that. He felt betrayed, and immediately ranted at Elysian what he had heard. He believed that it was Maluke who was truly responsible for all the attacks.

He also learned of more untruths that BBD had told him. Upset and confused, he told Dancer that he needed to see for himself what the other corps were like, but he said he was afraid that he would find that GoDA was the best, and would not be allowed back. So for many tangled reasons, he left GoDA, and joined The Neon Tigers.

Again he was quite happy at first, more relaxed and away from the dripping paranoia and tangled lies of GoDA. But he rarely joined arenas with other TNT, prefering to go up against difficult odds and win anyway, enjoying his power and the challenge. Once he went up against five UD Warriors by himself, and won.

He began speaking with Vincent and became good friends with him. Vincent said, "If I had known you were going to leave GoDA I'd have invited you to join WMC."

Vincent even offered him a position as a leader of WMC. He was honored at the offer, but unwilling to leave TNT.

But then changes were made to the arenas that greatly upset Scregor. His old weapons were declared illegal, due to some problems that had come up with them. Now, though, he could not win arenas by himself. Frustrated and annoyed, he began to slack off and not try as hard as he used to, not really caring so much anymore. Though the benefit was that he did get more sleep at night.

Then Elysian told him of a plan that they would create a small super corp for a few days, to prove a point. Scregor did not particularly care about the point nor agree to it, but he went along with it because Ely asked him to. Thus five of the best deckers from various corps formed DA Masters, which during the space of 36 hours, stirred up a lot of turmoil and discussion, before its members returned to their original corps.

Scregor, however, was annoyed at some of his friends who were less skilled than him being stuck in TNT: New Breed, the "training corp" for TNT. They did not enjoy it there, and were annoyed at its disorganization and lack of teamwork.

Yet still, he missed GoDA, and still talked to Dancer regularly. He trusted her completely, and told her everything that was on his mind. The fiasco with DA Masters made up his mind about something, and he knew then that he would return. Finally, with two weeks remaining in the season, he returned to GoDA.

Alienz was outraged at this action, and began screaming and yelling at him. Scregor merely sighed, and walked away, saying, "Why would I want to be in a corp that has a leader who behaves like that?"

* * *

**Memories**

It wasn't the same GoDA he returned to, however. There had been a merger since he left, and a number of new members besides. That had scared him at first from rejoining, but finally when he did he just walked away from TNT with no regrets and never looked back.

Again he heard rumors and accusations about GoDA that upset him, and he tried to defend them, and succeeded in little but causing arguments. The rifts caused by these arguments were difficult to mend.

Then, at the end of the season, the members of GoDA created a monument for all to see, that spelled "GoDA" out across the landscape. A testiment to the pride and power of the great corp, and something to remember the season by.

Scregor loved GoDA very much, his loyalty only strengthed by his time in TNT. He swore that during Season 3 he would remain in one corp all season, and that would be GoDA. Also then he conceived the idea that he might become a leader of GoDA, and it tore him apart.

After a long wait, the Senate opened up the third season of Droidarena, and Scregor again joined the ranks of GoDA.

* * *

**Shattered Dreams**

The season progressed, and Scregor worked toward his goals diligently. Yet now, BBD argued with him constantly. She seemed to really hate him now, and he wasn't entirely sure why. Then she revoked his financial advisor status, and he was surprised, but unwilling to leave or give up, even at her insistance. He donated all his money to the corp to prove his loyalty, and prove her wrong, yet she didn't care. She kept insisting that he intended to start his own corp and betray GoDA.

Worst of all her statements however, was her telling him that they had all wanted him to be a leader of GoDA, but were afraid of his affiliation with the Senate. He was devastated, yet remained stubborn and loyal to GoDA against his better judgment.

Then Scregor got word that BBD and Gryff were planning a meeting with the Senate, in an attempt to get two of the Senate members fired. Scregor warned them, however, that no good would come of it, but they would not listen and went through with it anyway. When the day for the meeting came, just as Scregor predicted, no good came of it.

"I told you so," Scregor told BBD. "I tried to warn you, but you wouldn't listen."

She became livid, and furious, and began accusing Scregor of many things that he had not done. She accused him of spying, of trying to take over the corp, and many things beside. The corp members were stunned at first into silence by her accusations, then tried to defend him as best they could, but BBD would not listen.

She screamed at him to leave, but he would not leave. He proclaimed his loyalty to the corp, and said that he would do anything for it. BBD told him to give up his moderator status if he really meant that. Little did she realize that he had indeed been willing to, and more.

"Get out of the room," she snarled. "And if you contact any GoDA member, I will fire you."

He turned and walked to the door, saying, "You may force me to leave, you may fire me, but you will not stop me from talking to my friends."

With that, he left the corp HQ for the last time, for thereafter BBD had fired him, and the doors were forever locked to him. 

* * *

**Nightfall**

After he was fired, he destroyed up his droid and all he had, to prove a point. He started over fresh, weak and alone. But he received a message from Ashen-Shugar, inviting him to join the corp Loners. He smiled, and was touched by the offer, the only one he received during that time. Remaining corpless for the time being, however, he waited for Dancer to return from vacation.

A few days later, Dancer came back, and was surprised and confused at what had happened while she was gone. She was his only chance, he knew. Hopeful, he plead his case to her, trusting her to listen and do the right thing.

Days passed, and nothing was done. Someone told Scregor that Dancer was merely taking all he said and reporting it to BBD. That angered him and saddened him, yet in his heart he could not believe it was true. He sat at his terminal for long hours, his fingers hovering over the buttons to open a commlink, but he was afraid. Pacing around his base, he thought to himself, and refused to believe that Dancer would betray him. Finally, late that night, he opened the commlink, and spoke at length with her again. Relieved that the rumors were untrue, he slept well that night for the first night that week.

By this point, however, he knew that his efforts to get back into GoDA would not succeed while BBD was yet leader. Thus, reluctantly, he started his own corp, and called it Nightfall, taking with him many who had left GoDA because of BBD's actions. Nightfall was small, but strong at first. However, some of its members began losing interest in arenas, and disappeared.

Another joined the corp, Lord Droid Killer, who had also been fired from GoDA by BBD's order. They began discussing mergers with other small corps in order to fill the holes filled by those who had disappeared. Nothing was worked out however.

LDK proposed a merger with Loners, though, and Scregor was very interested in that. It was, in fact, the one corp that he was actually willing to merge with. But they were a bit turned off by LDK's flamboyant, over-enthusastic attitude urging them to merge. Scregor knew that he only had the best interests of the corp in mind, but prefered to be more patient and let people come to decisions on their own.

After several days of talking on and off with Ashen-Shugar about a merger, they finally came to the conclusion that it may not be what was best. Rather than merge, Scregor disbanded Nightfall and took a few of the members with him, and joined Loners. 

* * *

**Uncertainty**

For some time, he enjoyed being with Loners, and working with them. Yet as time wore on, he watched as various members of the corp lost interest, or became busy with other things. He had told Frenchy of his desire to join UD Warriors, however there were no spots available and wouldn't appear to be anytime soon. Believing that Loners was going to die, he decided to take up LDK on his suggestion that he join hamster farm. However, before he joined, word came in that Avi had left hamster farm, and had formed a new corp named "dead hamster".

"This means hamster farm will die," Scregor observed.

But LDK denied it, saying, "Avi was the only one who was opposed to you joining in the first place."

However, Scregor, well aware of the forboding of it, decided to join anyway, and was proven right when most of the members left one by one and joined dead hamster. The corp was left without even a leader or anyone that could access the corp vaults.

Scregor then left, and decided to form a single-person corp named Kamikaze Ferret, and he said he would spend the rest of the season using FURY to destroy people that annoyed him.

Then Rogue Wolf said to him, "If you name it Kamikaze Animals or Kamikaze Roadkill or something, I'll join too."

He just chuckled for a moment, and changed the name of the corp to Kamikaze Roadkill. To his surprise, LDK and others joined as well, bringing the corp up to 5 members, and a place on the rankings. They were #1. Entirely unintentionally, they had created a very powerful corp.

Goodz, one of the leaders of TNT, was furious, however, until they told their intentions were not to create a cheap super corp, but just to have fun. Goodz said, "Well, you furying us saves us the trouble of doing it to you."

During the 24 hours that Kamikaze Roadkill existed, the five of them furied many different people, and Scregor laughed as he realized it was the most fun he had all season. But it was to be short-lived, as Rogue Wolf wished to return to Loners, and the others did as well. Scregor just nodded, and took all five of them back into Loners with him, even LDK.

Then, he received a message from Frenchy telling him that there was a spot open in UD Warriors, and he could join now if he still wished to. He did so, not wanting to miss the opportunity.

However, his time there was quiet, and lonely, and he too like many others slowly lost interest in the arena sport. He paid little attention to its happenings, other than a futile effort to pass TNT's kill ranking, and then on the last day of the season, decided to rejoin Loners.

On the last day, he furied Goodz four times for no reason other than because he was annoying. 

* * *

**Failure**

Season 3 was a complete failure, Scregor decided. Not one of the goals he had sought to achieve that season were accomplished, even the ones he thought would be near certain. He was not #1 at any point, he did not remain in one corp, or even close to loyal to any corp, nor did he reach TNT's kill ratio.

Season 4 opened a few days afterward. He and the members of the corp once called Loners created a corp named Kamikaze Roadkill once again. But before the arenas even opened, it was decided to merge with Hybrid Alliance, as soon as possible.

Thus the corp B.L.A.H. was formed. The name didn't mean anything, it was primarily intended to make other corps wonder what it meant. At first, Scregor was extremely happy, exstatic, and had good hopes for the corp. It would be like GoDA never was, yet revive everything that was good about them. Even the younger members he was happy to have around. He thought of them as his children.

His happiness was shortlived, however. Ashen-Shugar informed him that he and the other Loners were unhappy in BLAH. They did not want a big, huge corp. Scregor sighed, and told them, "I can't and won't make you stay where you don't want to be, although I'm disappointed."

And so they left. But Scregor remained determined to hold the corp together regardless, even though he was now unhappy with the droid sport entirely, he did not want to let down his friends who were still there.

There was a great uproar, and Scregor went to see what was going on. It seemed that many members of GoDA had been banned from the arenas due to evidence that they had been cheating. They were outraged, denying the accusations, but the proof the Senate had uncovered was undeniable. BBD in particular was vehement, and blamed Scregor for all that had gone wrong. Scregor laughed to himself at justice finally well served, and celebrated.

Then, however, in one day, Rhed decided to leave and rejoin UD Warriors, and LDK became a member of the Senate. Scregor sighed, and realized there was no longer any reason to be in BLAH anymore, now that nearly all those that he remained there for had left. He apologized to his corpmates, and without knowing or caring where he was going, left and never looked back. 

* * *

**Freedom**

It was the first time he had ever willingly gone for any length of time without any corp, clan, guild, family, or any such thing. He was a loner, on his own, with nobody to help him or care what he did or where he went. No responsibilities, no stress, no duties. He found it very relaxing, and realized he was having more fun now than he had in a long time. Scregor took it upon himself as a challenge.

Part of his refusal to join any corp was due to the fact that he could never decide which one. He very much loved many different corps and would gladly join any one of them. Many invitations appeared in his mailbox, yet he politely refused each one of them, as tempting as some of them were.

Finally, however, he decided it was time to return to TNT, and was very happy there.


End file.
